I would have preferred to have seen my old friend Kristian under different circumstances. My dad was dying from cancer. Kristian’s dad Michael was an old friend and the two of them came to see dad at the hospice. Kristian drove. It was great to see both Kristian and Michael. When I was growing up, Michael would bring his family to central Wisconsin to visit ours. The woods behind our Read More ...

As I build a daily habit of writing and communicating, I am simultaneously thinking about personal branding. Personal branding is really self-promotion but done in such a way that it doesn’t come off as bragging or boasting. It is about the words I choose. My writing is an expression of my brand because: “Your content is your key differentiator online.” That quote is from Erik Decker’s and Kyle Lacy’s excellent book Branding Yourself. Read More ...

I already posted my Third 52 goals, but I want to follow up with a recap from the Second 52. Hopefully I can look for some trends and patterns to find better ways to meet my goals going forward. For each goal, I’ll list the initial goal and then the results. Career Coding I built a habit of coding an hour a day, four days a week. Fail Before deciding to Read More ...

Thus far in 2015 I did a poor job of outlining my goals for the First and Second 52. This time, I am changing my ways and publishing my goals before it starts. Wowza! 3 Word review: Kingdom, Creation, Confidence Before I outline my goals for the Third 52, I want to take a few moments to reflect on my 3 words for 2015. Kingdom – Everything I do should be for Read More ...

Over the past few years I developed a bad habit I didn’t even realize I had until just recently. It affected almost every area of my life for the poorer. Now that I see it, I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed it sooner and am a little sad at the lost time because of it. What was it? Short-term thinking. I think I started down the road of this habit Read More ...

James Clear recently sent out his his goal setting newsletter where he discussed the importance of setting identity-based goals and how these are easier to stick than action-oriented goals. “The key to building lasting habits is focusing on creating a new identity first. Your current behaviors are simply a reflection of your current identity.” Podcaster Sean McCabe (@seanwes) has talked about setting big audacious goals and how you need to Read More ...

February 22 marked the 52nd day of the year and the end of the first 52-day goal period. I never did get around to writing a post listing out my goals for the First 52, so this summary will have to suffice in its stead. I thought, prior to this review, that I did a fair job of accomplishing my goals, but I see now I could have done a Read More ...

History Paul Allen says he’s discovered long-lost Japanese battleship It’s cool when billionaires use their resources for the betterment of history. Miscellaneous This Woman Flew an F-35 Simulator with Her Mind – whoa. The future! Movies How to Make a Cohesive (and Compelling) Alien Cinematic Universe Aliens is my favorite movie of all, and the Alien and Predator universes are both fascinating. With a new movie in the works, this is a great summary of Read More ...